Unattended depositories are known in the prior art. Such depositories, which are sometimes referred to as "night depositories", are most often installed by banks. Such night depositories enable bank customers to make deposits to their account when the bank is closed. Customers of the bank input to the depository articles such as envelopes, bags or similar containers. The containers contain items for deposit such as checks, cash and credit slips. The deposited containers also generally contain a deposit slip to identify the entity making the deposit.
Users of a night depository place their deposit into the depository through an opening. Accessing the opening generally involves opening a door, slide or similar cover member. The secure depository generally includes a generally secure compartment. Deposited items are held in the secure compartment until an access door to the compartment is opened by an authorized person who has a lock combination, key or other suitable means for opening the secure compartment. The authorized person removes the deposited items. The items are then reviewed to determine what has been deposited and to verify that the deposited items conform with the associated deposit slip. Once the deposited items are counted and verified the appropriate account is credited.
Some secure depositories are intended to be used by consumers. Such depositories generally enable any person to place an item within the depository. Mechanisms are usually provided to prevent persons from attempting to "fish" items out of the depository. Because such depositories may be accessed by any person there is some risk of vandalism due to persons inserting destructive materials into the depository. Such materials may destroy deposits that have been placed in the depository.
Other depositories are designed to be used only by selected customers of the bank or other institution. Such depositories require a key to be accessed. Customers of the bank or institution who are authorized to insert deposited items into such depositories are provided with a key. The key may be used to unlock a depository door to access an opening so that an item may be deposited. While keys are a convenient way of restricting access to a depository they are also relatively expensive to produce. This is particularly true where several persons who work for a particular bank customer need to have keys so that they may make deposits. Keys are sometimes lost or stolen which results in a need to provide duplicate keys which is an additional cost.
One of the drawbacks associated with night depositories is that they provide no immediate record that the user has made the deposit. Disputes sometimes arise between institutions which accept deposits and customers as to whether a deposit was made. When a deposit cannot be accounted for there is often a question as to whether an employee of the customer may have misappropriated the deposit. There are sometimes questions as to whether employees of the bank or third party employees responsible for emptying the depository have misappropriated the deposit. In some cases such disputes are impossible to resolve.
Thus there exists a need for a secure depository that restricts operation to authorized users which is economical to install and operate and which provides immediate records of deposits so that disputes over lost deposits are reduced.